Broken Roar
by PicnicAtHangingRockGirl
Summary: During Mowgli's acceptance into the pack during the Chapter "Mowgli's Brothers", Shere Khan refelects on the way his friendship with Bagheera has changed.


**Disclaimer: I don't own The Jungle Book.**

(A/N: Instead of writing a story for the movie, I decided to write one for the book. With its lack of availability, The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book can be read for free online.)

_Mowgli was still deeply interested in the pebbles, and he did not notice when the wolves_

_came and looked at him one by one. At last they all went down the hill for the dead bull,_

_and only Akela, Bagheera, Baloo, and Mowgli's own wolves were left. Shere Khan roared_

_still in the night, for he was very angry that Mowgli had not been handed over to him._

_"Ay, roar well," said Bagheera, under his whiskers, "for the time will come when this naked thing will make thee roar to another tune, or I know nothing of man."_

-The Jungle Book (Chapter 1: Mowgli's Brothers)

Shere Khan used both the cover of night and the jungle to conceal him from the Wolf meeting on top the rock ledge. His tail swayed impatiently back and forth.

The tiger watched as the pack exchanged what seemed to be glances of uncertainty. He smiled, already feeling the man's cub flesh ripped up on his claws.

Baloo came forward, causing an irritated twitch in Shere Khan's left eye. Why did that bear have to come to a wolf meeting? After he spoke, an elegant black figure strolled into view. All the anger Shere Khan had previously built up fell from his heart. Everyone else on the ledge--even Mowgli--faded away to the Tiger, who focused solely on Bagheera. It brought his heart the most agonizing pain, as deep as the pain he felt for the burns on his paws.

_"Can you not keep up, Shere Khan!" the black panther asked, just recently ripened from a cub to an adult._

_Shere Khan, just as recently grown up, answered as he ran, "It's my foot. It troubles me."_

_Bagheera stopped, "The lame one?"_

_Shere Khan came up to him, lowering his eyes in shame, "Yes."_

_The panther spoke in his voice that always made Shere Khan feel inferior to Bagheera and soothed by him as well, "You needn't be ashamed for your abnormality."_

_"It will always keep me from being as great as you." the tiger confessed in what he thought was the truth._

_Bagheera's caring eyes came into Shere Khan's path of vision, "You will always be great to me."_

_When he pulled away, Shere Khan looked up at him with the saddest disbelief, "Always?"_

_"Always," Bagheera answered, reflecting his friend's sadness in his own eyes._

_* * *_

_The two of them ducked low in the grass, watching an unsuspecting bull move on the land. They both turned to each other for a quick nod of agreement, then lunged towards the bull to dig their claws and mouth in him._

_The bull thrashed around trying to get them both off, but only Shere Khan was thrown off. He watched with eyes wide from admiration as Bagheera killed the beast, forgetting to be ashamed for his own failure. When the bull was dead, Bagheera stopped ripping it up with heavy breaths._

_Shere Khan let his adoring eyes slip off Bagheera, landing on the form of another charging bull. "Bagheera!" The Panther turned to him and he motioned his head forward, "We have company!"_

_Bagheera turned to look where Shere Khan was, frightened by the closeness the other bull had on him. This one stood proud and tall, ready to lunge towards Bagheera as the panther had the other bull. _

_His already widened eyes widened more at the sight of Shere Khan jumping forward, knocking the bull to the ground. The tiger quickly unhooked his claws from the beast to repeatedly tear them through the bull until he was dead._

_He then turned around, receiving the most illuminating pleasure he had received all day, from the admiration filling his friend's adoring eyes._

As the wolves circled Mowgli to accept him in the pack, Shere Khan felt a stab of pain in his heart from knowing Bagheera had favored Mowgli. Even after knowing, as all the jungle did, that Shere Khan did not want man in the jungle, as small as Mowgli may be.

The tiger released an angry roar, from not getting to kill the child and from not having Bagheera. He saw Bagheera turn his head in his direction, leaving the tiger unsure if he really did see him. Shere Khan heard him say, "Ay, roar well for the time will come when this naked thing will make thee roar to another tune, or I know nothing of man."

It hit his heart harder than any blow he'd ever faced. Bagheera didn't think he was great. And as Shere Khan stared up at him, he realized that he would never be as great as Bagheera was.

With that revelation, he turned away and ran through the jungle. He would remain unaware that Bagheera had watched him go, his own heart breaking at the loss of their friendship.

* * *

Shere Khan ended up in a dry part of the jungle, where a large rock was next to a tree. He stood on the on the rock, releasing furious roars for what had happened.

Gradually (as he lowered himself to bury his face in the soft fur of his paws) his mighty roar broke up until they were no longer roars at all, but the most agonizing sobs the pain in his heart could offer.


End file.
